{"id":2156,"date":"2018-11-27T05:28:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T05:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-write-the-background-of-your-study\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T04:59:17","slug":"how-to-write-the-background-of-your-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-write-the-background-of-your-study","title":{"rendered":"How to write the background of your study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">While the findings of your study form the foreground of your research, it is equally important to establish the background of your study. A well-written background will provide your study with a context and prompt the readers to read the rest of your paper. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">However, most authors struggle with writing the background of the study. Another common problem authors encounter is distinguishing between the background and the literature review, which are critical aspects of any research paper. The two terms are often used interchangeably; however, they have clearly defined roles. So in this article, I will cover the basics of writing the background and explain how it is different from the literature review.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#background-of-the-study\">The background of the study<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#how-to-structure-the-background\">How to structure the background<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#how-to-make-background-engaging\">How to make the background engaging<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#how-to-avoid-mistakes-when-writing-background\">How to avoid common mistakes when writing the background<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#background-vs-literature-review\">How is the background different from literature review<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"background-of-the-study\" style=\"padding-top: 80px; margin-top: -80px;\">The background of the study<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">The background<b> <\/b>of the study establishes the context of the research. This section explains why this particular research topic is important and essential to understanding the main aspects of the study. Usually, the background forms the first section of a research article\/thesis and justifies the need for conducting the study and summarizes what the study aims to achieve. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-structure-the-background\" style=\"padding-top: 80px; margin-top: -80px;\">How to structure the background<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">In this section, the author usually outlines the historical developments in the literature that led to the current topic of research concisely. If the study is interdisciplinary, it should describe how different disciplines are connected and what aspects of each discipline will be studied. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"well\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0in; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;\">Additionally, authors should briefly highlight the main developments of their research topic and identify the main gaps that need to be addressed. In other words, this section should give an overview of your study. The section should be organized as:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">What is known about the broad topic?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">What are the gaps or missing links that need to be addressed?\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">What is the significance of addressing those gaps?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">What are the rationale and hypothesis of your study?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">The background section, therefore, should provide general information about the topic of your research and emphasize the main aims of the study. Please ensure that you only discuss the main and relevant aspects of the studies that have led to your aims. Do not elaborate on them as this should be done in the literature review section. The background section should discuss your findings in a chronological manner to accentuate the progress in the field and the missing points that need to be addressed. The background should be written as a summary of your interpretation of previous research and what your study proposes to accomplish. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-make-background-engaging\" style=\"padding-top: 80px; margin-top: -80px;\">How to make the background engaging<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">As the background includes a lot of information, it can become a long drag, causing the readers to lose interest. To ensure that your background is engaging, you should try to build a story around the central theme of your research. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Ensure that the story adheres to the core idea and does not digress into a broad literature review. Each idea should lead to the next so that readers are able to grasp the story and themselves identify the gaps that your study is going to address. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-avoid-mistakes-when-writing-background\" style=\"padding-top: 80px; margin-top: -80px;\">How to avoid common mistakes when writing the background<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span id=\"pop-up-3\" style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">While writing an effective background, you ought to steer clear of some mistakes. The most common mistakes in writing the background include the following:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Don\u2019t write a background that is too long or too short. Focus on including all the important details but write concisely. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Don\u2019t be ambiguous. Writing in a way that does not convey the message to the readers defeats the purpose of the background, so express yourself keeping in mind that the reader does not know your research intimately. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Don\u2019t discuss unrelated themes. Try and center your discussion around the pivotal aspects of your research topic i.e. highlight the gaps in the literature, state the novelty of the study, and the need to conduct the study.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Don\u2019t be disorganized. Not discussing the themes in a chronological manner can confuse the reader about the progress in the field, so try and organize your writing carefully.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"background-vs-literature-review\" style=\"padding-top: 80px; margin-top: -80px;\">How is the background different from literature review<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Many authors find it difficult to discern the difference between the literature review and the study background. The literature review section should follow the background section, as the second section of your manuscript\/thesis. This section basically supports the background section by providing evidence for the proposed hypothesis. This section should be more comprehensive and thoroughly describe all the studies that you have mentioned in the background section. It should also elaborate on all studies that form evidence for the present study and discuss the current trends. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">To write this section, you will need to do a thorough literature search on different studies that relate to the broad topic of your research. This will introduce the readers to the area of your research. Following this, you should present a more focused survey of the specific studies that are associated with the precise objective of your study. It would be ideal to organize them thematically and discuss them chronologically so that readers are aware of the evolution and progress in the field. In other words, separate themes should be discussed chronologically to highlight how research in those fields has progressed over time. This will highlight what has been done and what are the future directions that need to be worked upon. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<h3>What should I avoid in the background section?<\/h3>\n<p>In the background section, researchers should avoid<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Overly broad or widely known statements, e.g., &#8220;Pneumonia is an infection affecting the lungs.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Complicated jargon without defining it<\/li>\n<li>Excessive details about previous studies; keep this information for the literature review secttion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Where do I place the background section in a research paper?<\/h3>\n<p>The background section is usually placed after an introductory paragraph, before the literature review. Follow the structure given in the guidelines of your target journal.<\/p>\n<h3>Is a background section in a research paper mandatory?<\/h3>\n<p>Some journals do not require a separate background section, so you can merge the background and introduction sections. Nevertheless, your research paper must contain the\u00a0<em>information\u00a0<\/em>from the background section: the research gaps you aim to fill, your study goals, etc.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">An important thing to consider is that the literature review should be organized to highlight what research has been done and point out what has been missed. There might be other studies that have tried to fill the gaps in the literature and have been unsuccessful or there might be better ways to address the gaps. Covering these points in the literature review gives the readers a perspective on the significance and the novelty of the study. This can be accomplished by comparing and contrasting previous similar studies to abreast the reader with all the knowledge about the field. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 500px;\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"1\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th scope=\"col\">Study background<\/th>\n<th scope=\"col\">Literature review<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should be the first section of the study<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should be the section that follows the background of the study<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should provide the context of the study<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should provide a comprehensive overview of broad and specific literature in the field<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should provide a historical perspective and highlight the significance of the study<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should critically highlight the progress of research and gaps that need to be addressed<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should not elaborate on background literature and only summarize it<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Should provide a detailed review of the existing literature on the topic\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">For research papers, it is usual for the background and literature review to be combined and presented together without separate headings. For dissertations, the background and literature review may be presented as separate sections. Ultimately, it is best to check your target journal\u2019s instructions before writing the background of your study. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\"><b>For more helpful resources, check out the following:<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\"><a style=\"color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-write-the-background-to-the-study-in-a-research-paper\/\">How to write the background to the study in a research paper?<\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 107%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\"><a style=\"color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/what-comprises-the-background-to-a-study-in-a-research-paper\/\">What comprises the background to a study in a research paper?<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\"><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/6-differences-between-study-background-and-literature-review\/\">INFOGRAPHIC: 6 Differences between study background and literature review<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';\"><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/8-dos-and-8-donts-of-writing-an-engaging-study-background\/\">INFOGRAPHIC: 8 Dos and 8 don&#8217;ts of writing an engaging study background<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the findings of your study form the foreground of your research, it is equally important to establish the background of your study. A well-written background will provide your study with a context and prompt the readers to read the rest of your paper. However, most authors struggle with writing the background of the study. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":45152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2426],"tags":[2529,2557,1084],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-study-background-introduction","tag-background-of-astudy","tag-introduction-section","tag-literature-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to write the background of your study | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn the basics of writing the study background, how to structure the background section, and how it differs from a literature review.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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